1. Field of the Invention
Radiation sources and an electroplating process for making radiation sources.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One commercial alpha-source, especially usable in smoke detectors, is made by Amersham Corporation of Arlington Heights, Ill. and is described as follows: An open silver case provides the substrate for the source. This silver case has a thin gold inner surface coating. In the silver case is placed a matrix which is a mixture of gold and americium-241 oxide powder which has been pressed into a solid billet. The billet is first sintered and then hot forged in the silver case with a gold-platinum alloy foil cover. Repeated rolling of this composite under controlled conditions produces a continuously welded metal strip of the desired dimensions with the active americium-241/gold matrix layer confined between inactive borders and protected by a thin gold alloy top layer. Another commercial alpha-source supplier is Nuclear Radiation Development, Inc., of Grand Island, N.Y. and their sources are made in a similar manner to the Amersham sources except that after the source is made Nuclear Radiation electroplates a thin gold top coating on the source.